Dharmendra takes a jibe at Congress, says Dheeraj Sahu is grand old party's ATM
Bhubaneswar: Union education and skill development minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday took a potshot at the Congress saying the grand old party used Jharkhand’s Rajya Sabha member Dheeraj Sahu as its bank ATM,
Pradhan’s jibe came a day after the Rajya Sabha MP broke silence and clarified that seized cash from liquor manufacturing units in Odisha neither belonged to the Congress nor any other political party.
The Income Tax (I-T) department recovered Rs 351 crore from multiple country-liquor manufacturing units and selling points in Odisha’s Boudh, Bolangir, Sundergarh districts.
The Rajya Sabha MP has alleged links with the country-liquor manufacturing units and selling points in Odisha.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the BJP’s Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra at Barang near here, Pradhan said, “The world knows that Dheeraj Sahu is the ATM for the Gandhi family. He is third time MP from the Congress and everybody says that he is the ATM for the Gandhi family. Nobody is able to digest his statements in defence after a week.”
“Dheeraj Sahu was running and manipulating the excise policy on his own terms. It was his modus operandi to pressurise people by showing photographs with Gandhi family. He was one of the close confidants of the Congress family,” said Pradhan.
The minister said the Odisha government’s “moth-eaten” excise policy was greatly twisted to favour liquor manufacturers and traders.
Earlier on Friday, Sahu had dismissed the claims made by media that the cash seized by I-T sleuths was owned by him and said it belonged to some of his relatives and not him.
“The matter is between them and the I-T department. My relatives will clarify on that later. But before all that, we should wait for a statement from the I-T department. They will tell whether the seized cash is black money or white money. All the cash seized was from sales of liquor. “Baldeo Sahu and Sons’ and ‘Ritesh Sahu and Sons’ firms are owned by my relatives. Besides, there are other relatives of mine who own such firms too,” Sahu had said.
On Boudh Distillery Private Limited (BDPL), Sahu reportedly said it is owned by his relatives where liquor is manufactured. No cash has been found by the I-T department from BDPL, he claimed.
Former Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Jayadev Jena
